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Document Details : Title: Ismaili Poetry in Tajik Badakhshan Subtitle: A Safavid Connection Author(s): VAN DEN BERG, Gabrielle Journal: Persica Volume: 17 Date: 2001 Pages: 1-9 DOI: 10.2143/PERS.17.0.495 Abstract : One of the main genres of sung poetry in Tajik Badakhshan is maddâh, performed by so-called maddâhxâns, who perform religious poetry as an Ismaili ritual on a variety of different occasions. The maddâh is built up by different texts of poetry, which are linked together in performance. The texts are almost exclusively in (Tajik) Persian, the “church language” of the Ismaili Badakhshanis in Tajikistan. The majority of the Badakhshanis are speakers of Pamir languages, but many of them are bilingual and speak Tajik Persian or Russian in addition to their native language. Well-known names may be heard in the poems, being the pen names or taxalloses of classical Persian poets. Especially the pen names of Jalal-od-din Rumi (Shams-e Tabrizi) and Nâser-e Xosrow occur quite often at the end of the qazals which form one of the main types of texts sung in this tradition. |
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